Test Cricket Prediction and Discussion Thread [self - mod]

[Vishnu.Reang]

Siraj can't match speed of Saini and Yadav, they are fast and on the other hand Siraj is medium pacer who barely clock 140 Kmph.
Bhai Aussie have likes of Smith, Labuschange, Usman Khawaja (if he's get into playing XI) in middle order.

IMO, Siraj is a very ordinary bowler. He is playing for RCB and that probably explains his rapid rise in the national team. For the Australian tour, I would have expected the selectors to pick someone with a bit more experience in playing under such conditions. Siraj could have been OK for the short format but I am doubtful whether he can handle the pressure and stress of the test format.

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[bryant.coleman]

Good and experienced bowlers should be included in the squad for the Test match against Australia. Siraj maybe good for t20. He played well in IPL. But he is not yet perfect to play Test match against a big team like Australia.

Other pace bowlers in the lest are also not that experienced. And this can be a problem in case either Jasprit Bumrah or Mohammad Shami gets injured. Pacers such as Navdeep Saini and Mohammed Siraj doesn't have a lot of experience in playing against teams like Australia, especially in the longer format. Also, I would have liked the selectors to include one more pacer in the squad. What is the point in having three spinners for Australia?

[JSRAW]

Siraj can't match speed of Saini and Yadav, they are fast and on the other hand Siraj is medium pacer who barely clock 140 Kmph.
Bhai Aussie have likes of Smith, Labuschange, Usman Khawaja (if he's get into playing XI) in middle order.

IMO, Siraj is a very ordinary bowler. He is playing for RCB and that probably explains his rapid rise in the national team. For the Australian tour, I would have expected the selectors to pick someone with a bit more experience in playing under such conditions. Siraj could have been OK for the short format but I am doubtful whether he can handle the pressure and stress of the test format.

I would be very careful or skeptical if he's wearing blue jersey despite his recent performance in IPL. If we put aside his brilliant spell against KKR then he doesn't have much to show. On the other hand he earned few fans in Red ball cricket when playing in Ranji and India A so i don't mind if he get into Test squad, however Jayadev Unadkat is more successful in domestic cricket but he didn't get call for Test Squad.

Here i feel that Selection committee see IPL performance is kinda benchmark, which is ridiculous IMO.

[Vishnu.Reang]

I would be very careful or skeptical if he's wearing blue jersey despite his recent performance in IPL. If we put aside his brilliant spell against KKR then he doesn't have much to show. On the other hand he earned few fans in Red ball cricket when playing in Ranji and India A so i don't mind if he get into Test squad, however Jayadev Unadkat is more successful in domestic cricket but he didn't get call for Test Squad.

Here i feel that Selection committee see IPL performance is kinda benchmark, which is ridiculous IMO.

There is no doubt that Jayadev Unadkat is a good bowler. But whatever chance he had for a comeback evaporated when he bowled that disastrous over against AB de Villiers. It was such a devastating blow for his team as well. RR never recovered from the defeat they suffered during that match. And Steve Smith never again had the confidence to include Unadkat in the playing XI.

[JSRAW]

I would be very careful or skeptical if he's wearing blue jersey despite his recent performance in IPL. If we put aside his brilliant spell against KKR then he doesn't have much to show. On the other hand he earned few fans in Red ball cricket when playing in Ranji and India A so i don't mind if he get into Test squad, however Jayadev Unadkat is more successful in domestic cricket but he didn't get call for Test Squad.

Here i feel that Selection committee see IPL performance is kinda benchmark, which is ridiculous IMO.

There is no doubt that Jayadev Unadkat is a good bowler. But whatever chance he had for a comeback evaporated when he bowled that disastrous over against AB de Villiers. It was such a devastating blow for his team as well. RR never recovered from the defeat they suffered during that match. And Steve Smith never again had the confidence to include Unadkat in the playing XI.

I have no beef if selectors neglecting Unadkat for limited over cricket, he suck in White ball cricket anyway but selecting test team on basis of IPL is kinda stupid IMO. Unadkat regularly perform well in Ranji and he was highest wicket taker in the last season. Another name is leading run scorer Rahul Dalal from Arunachal. What kind of msz they are sending to domestic players here? Forget about red ball cricket and try white ball cricket then perform only in IPL?

[Vishnu.Reang]

I have no beef if selectors neglecting Unadkat for limited over cricket, he suck in White ball cricket anyway but selecting test team on basis of IPL is kinda stupid IMO. Unadkat regularly perform well in Ranji and he was highest wicket taker in the last season. Another name is leading run scorer Rahul Dalal from Arunachal. What kind of msz they are sending to domestic players here? Forget about red ball cricket and try white ball cricket then perform only in IPL?

Well.. ideally that should be the case. Test players should be selected based on their Ranji performance. But no one is quite sure about this year's Ranji season. The pandemic situation in India is still quite serious and I am not sure whether the BCCI will get the required permission to stage such a massive tournament with 38 teams and hundreds (if not thousands) of players. So for now, the selection will be based on the IPL performance.

BTW, I disagree with you on Rahul Dalal. Most of his runs came against teams such as Manipur and Mizoram. So I am not going to give much attention to him. 

[Clement Kaliyar]

I would be very careful or skeptical if he's wearing blue jersey despite his recent performance in IPL. If we put aside his brilliant spell against KKR then he doesn't have much to show. On the other hand he earned few fans in Red ball cricket when playing in Ranji and India A so i don't mind if he get into Test squad, however Jayadev Unadkat is more successful in domestic cricket but he didn't get call for Test Squad.

Here i feel that Selection committee see IPL performance is kinda benchmark, which is ridiculous IMO.

You cannot neglect that brilliant spell he bowled against KKR and if given the chance where the pitch would help the fast bowlers he might do wonders, i am not judging his performance in T20 and it will be entirely different in seam pitches and in different formats. Looks like selection was made based on the IPL performance which is ridiculous but there is no other benchmark to select players during this period.

[vella85]

I'm looking forward to this up coming test series between Australia and India in Australia because I think this time it will be a lot different and it will be interesting to see how well India perform against a full strength Australian team on Australian soil because lets not forget the last series between these two teams played in Australia where India won however it was not a full strength Australian team with two key batsman missing but this time around it will be different so I'm expecting a very close fought series and I can't wait to finally see some cricket played in Australia again.

Not worry about Warner that much but Smith+Marnus labuschagne are going to be a real challenge for Indian bowlers. Tim Paine scoring runs in Sheffield so another guy to watch out for.

Siraj is not great but definitely not that bad either in the Red ball cricket, he did perform okay for India A tho. He's not going to make into playing XI anyway because of Saini and Yadav. On Vihari, New Zealand tour was complete failure for every batsmen and he's played only 9 test match so far. As far as Australia tour is concern Vihari did okay there last time so i would say he's best bet for middle order and can bowl handy overs too. Shubman Gill is young and he's in the test squad as middle order batsman if anything goes wrong with the Vihari then he could replace him.

I don't think that Siraj is in anyway inferior to Saini or Yadav. It will be interesting to watch him bowling against the quality Australian batting lineup, comprising of Warner, Smith and Labuschagne. BTW, I would say that the chances are more like 50-50. Australians do have a better pace bowling attack, but they are very vulnerable in middle-order batting. Actually this vulnerability has been there for the last 3-4 years and the team management can't find a solution to it.

Siraj can't match speed of Saini and Yadav, they are fast and on the other hand Siraj is medium pacer who barely clock 140 Kmph.
Bhai Aussie have likes of Smith, Labuschange, Usman Khawaja (if he's get into playing XI) in middle order.

Well Warner does play a lot better in Australia so I am expecting him to play well. This is what I mean by saying that it will be a different series then the last when India played in Australia as the Australian team is a lot stronger now with their batting line up where as last time Australia were playing new players in the middle order and of course there was no Smith which will make a huge difference especially playing in Australia where he has an amazing record. I still think the series will be a close one and will be one of the best test series we will see as both teams look good.

[eaLiTy]

This is what I mean by saying that it will be a different series then the last when India played in Australia as the Australian team is a lot stronger now with their batting line up where as last time Australia were playing new players in the middle order and of course there was no Smith which will make a huge difference especially playing in Australia where he has an amazing record. I still think the series will be a close one and will be one of the best test series we will see as both teams look good.

Steve Smith and David Warner were missing from the team India defeated last time around but whether those could change the entire complexion of the series is doubtful as the bowlers were in good form and was troubling everyone else but a full strength team is a different dimension and a challenge for India and it will be a heavily contested series.

[bryant.coleman]

I was going through some of the social media posts, and there is a lot of anger among the fans regarding the selection of the test team. Earlier people were complaining about the "CSK quota". Now they are complaining about the "RCB quota". Some of them want Virat Kohli to be replaced with Rohit Sharma. But will that resolve everything? What if we get the "MI quota" after Rohit becomes the captain? Nepotism and favoritism are hot topics in India right now, and Virat needs to be careful here. His dramatics during the match against MI yesterday did him no good.

[Juggy777]

I was going through some of the social media posts, and there is a lot of anger among the fans regarding the selection of the test team. Earlier people were complaining about the "CSK quota". Now they are complaining about the "RCB quota". Some of them want Virat Kohli to be replaced with Rohit Sharma. But will that resolve everything? What if we get the "MI quota" after Rohit becomes the captain? Nepotism and favoritism are hot topics in India right now, and Virat needs to be careful here. His dramatics during the match against MI yesterday did him no good.

@bryant.coleman these fans views are fickle, because if the player’s from RCB help team India win the matches in Australia then they’ll praise these player’s, and even want them to be selected more often, hence I don’t really buy into their views.

Furthermore we all know that Virat’s end game is to win every match that he plays, and therefore he’ll only select the best squad that can help him win the matches, hence we should all trust in his judgement that he has picked the best squad for this series.

Source:

https://zeenews.india.com/cricket/winning-like-virat-kohli-indian-captains-success-formula-revealed-in-new-book-2008475.html

[Vishnu.Reang]

Steve Smith and David Warner were missing from the team India defeated last time around but whether those could change the entire complexion of the series is doubtful as the bowlers were in good form and was troubling everyone else but a full strength team is a different dimension and a challenge for India and it will be a heavily contested series.

Absence of Steve Smith was a huge factor back then. And for Australia, the absence of David Warner made it even worse. Steve Smith is being regarded by many as the best test batsmen as of now. His absence was devastating for the Australians. Even then it was not a white-wash. India won the four match series by 2-1. For Australia, the top order was comprised of Finch/Harris/Khawaja, and they didn't performed well. But even during that series, the bowlers were impressive (Starc/Cummins/Hazlewood/Lyon). Cheteshwar Pujara played a large part in the series victory for India, but he has been out of action for more than 8 months.

[JSRAW]

I have no beef if selectors neglecting Unadkat for limited over cricket, he suck in White ball cricket anyway but selecting test team on basis of IPL is kinda stupid IMO. Unadkat regularly perform well in Ranji and he was highest wicket taker in the last season. Another name is leading run scorer Rahul Dalal from Arunachal. What kind of msz they are sending to domestic players here? Forget about red ball cricket and try white ball cricket then perform only in IPL?

Well.. ideally that should be the case. Test players should be selected based on their Ranji performance. But no one is quite sure about this year's Ranji season. The pandemic situation in India is still quite serious and I am not sure whether the BCCI will get the required permission to stage such a massive tournament with 38 teams and hundreds (if not thousands) of players. So for now, the selection will be based on the IPL performance.

BTW, I disagree with you on Rahul Dalal. Most of his runs came against teams such as Manipur and Mizoram. So I am not going to give much attention to him.  

This is not the first time they selected Test team based on IPL. Last time they selected KL Rahul on same criteria and he failed royally. Somehow BCCI doesn't follow the idea of specialist in any format completely. in odd days they are pro specialist and do selection based on performance if they like any individual, on even days they go bonkers and continue with the limited over cricketers in the test.

Its not Rahul Dalal mistake tho.

~snip~
Here i feel that Selection committee see IPL performance is kinda benchmark, which is ridiculous IMO.

You cannot neglect that brilliant spell he bowled against KKR and if given the chance where the pitch would help the fast bowlers he might do wonders, i am not judging his performance in T20 and it will be entirely different in seam pitches and in different formats. Looks like selection was made based on the IPL performance which is ridiculous but there is no other benchmark to select players during this period.

I don't understand this, Siraj performs in IPL and instead of selecting him in T-20 against Australia, he gets the spot in the Test Format. I am not against his selection in Test squad, he's much better bowler in Red ball cricket in comparison of White ball but selection logic is stupid IMO.

Not worry about Warner that much  

Well Warner does play a lot better in Australia so I am expecting him to play well.

I agree that he does perform better in home condition but deep down i have some doubt if he can face Shami or not and if Bumrah gets going then it would be very tough for him.

[7788bitcoin]

Some of them want Virat Kohli to be replaced with Rohit Sharma.

Is it because of religion, region or because of performance as captain. I am not aware of these finer things as majority of the things are strange which is hard to understand.

But will that resolve everything? What if we get the "MI quota" after Rohit becomes the captain? Nepotism and favoritism are hot topics in India right now, and Virat needs to be careful here. His dramatics during the match against MI yesterday did him no good.

Is this the same issue with South African cricket as they are providing quota rather than looking for skills but Indian team has a good composition of talents and without talent and performance you cannot hang on to the team for a long time.

[bryant.coleman]

Is this the same issue with South African cricket as they are providing quota rather than looking for skills but Indian team has a good composition of talents and without talent and performance you cannot hang on to the team for a long time.

Well.. the problem in India is that they have an oversupply of talent. For each slot in the playing XI, you have 6-7 different players competing for it. And the competition is the most fierce, for the position of wicket keeper batsmen. Rishabh Pant is being preferred by Kohli. But other players such as Sanju Samson and Ishan Kishan are also in the probable list. And then we have players such as Dinesh Karthik and Wriddhiman Saha, who want to make comeback to the national team.

[Vishnu.Reang]

Is this the same issue with South African cricket as they are providing quota rather than looking for skills but Indian team has a good composition of talents and without talent and performance you cannot hang on to the team for a long time.

Selection related controversy was always present with the Indian national team. MSK Prasad was known to have a bias in favor of players from his state, such as Hanuma Vihari. But that is how the system in India works. Everyone will be having a certain amount of bias, either towards his state side, or towards his IPL franchise (or both).

[JSRAW]

BCCI announced their complete squad for upcoming Australia tour. Rohit Sharma and Ishant Sharma names are missing due to injuries.

In T-20 Mayank Agarwal, Sanju Samson, Varun Chakarvarthy reaping some rewards due to their IPL form. Rishab Pant and Kuldeep out...

Team India T20I squad: Virat Kohli (Captain), Shikhar Dhawan, Mayank Agarwal, KL Rahul (vice-captain and wicket-keeper), Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Hardik Pandya, Sanju Samson (wicket-keeper), Ravindra Jadeja, Washington Sundar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohd. Shami, Navdeep Saini, Deepak Chahar, Varun Chakravarthy

In ODI, again Rishab Pant out and Kedar Jadav is missing so its safe to say his international career is almost finished. Shubman Gill in..

Team India ODI squad: Virat Kohli (Captain), Shikhar Dhawan, Shubman Gill, KL Rahul (vice-captain & wicket-keeper), Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Hardik Pandya, Mayank Agarwal, Ravindra Jadeja, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohd. Shami, Navdeep Saini, Shardul Thakur

This is more or less same squad as last tour except inclusion of Siraj and Shubman Gill. KL Rahul back in the test squad, i still remember his last performance in the last tour  

Team India Test squad: Virat Kohli (Captain), Mayank Agarwal, Prithvi Shaw, KL Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane (vice-captain), Hanuma Vihari, Shubman Gill, Wriddhiman Saha (wicket-keeper), Rishabh Pant (wicket-keeper), Jasprit Bumrah, Mohd. Shami, Umesh Yadav, Navdeep Saini, Kuldeep Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, R. Ashwin, Mohd. Siraj

New Updates

BCCI seems confused on Rohit and other players due to injury, they should have wait to finish IPL first to avoid any confusion, or at least disclose the squad one week before the Finals. Anyways here are more changes and update on Indian squad.


https://www.espncricinfo.com/story/_/id/30284064/virat-kohli-play-only-one-test-australia,-rohit-sharma-added-squad

[Vishnu.Reang]

It seems to me that heavy workload in the IPL has resulted in a number of injuries. But the players are not going to care much, as playing for the national team nowadays is not as rewarding for playing for their franchises. However, players such as Varun Chakravarthy would be disappointed as he was about to make his debut for India. BTW, Kohli's case is different. He is taking a delayed paternity leave.

[Clement Kaliyar]

BCCI seems confused on Rohit and other players due to injury, they should have wait to finish IPL first to avoid any confusion, or at least disclose the squad one week before the Finals. Anyways here are more changes and update on Indian squad.

Rohit is not in the best of form and he is injured and they should not force him back, Virat is not going to play the entire Test series and it will be an advantage for Australia as the highlight of the series would have been Smith Vs Virat and who is going to score the most runs because in the last series Smith was leading with the runs and i was expecting a great battle.

[Vishnu.Reang]

The Indian team now has problems with selection. Without Virat Kohli, it will be very difficult to fight against a big team like Australia. Although the Indian team has many talented and experienced players. On the other hand BCCI finds talented players through IPL. Hopefully we can see more new and talented players in the Indian squad. Overall the series between India vs Australia will be very competitive. Both teams are going to play an international match after a long break. Both will have the expectation of victory.

Whatever the analysts say, the truth is that Virat Kohli is the only consistent batsmen for India in surfaces that support pace and bounce. If he is not available for most of the matches, then it can have a large impact on the outcome. Also, the first-class season in India is delayed due to COVID 19. So most of the players are without match practice, as far as the longer format is concerned.